29th January 2007

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The School of Environmental Science scored a double success this week with two separate articles appearing in the same issue of leading geoscience journal, Geology.

Published by the Geological Society of America, the journal publishes only material of international interest in the geosciences which represents significant advances in the field.  

Professor Andrew Cooper and UU colleagues, John McKenna, Derek Jackson and Marianne O’Connor’s contribution described a new mechanism of coastal behaviour that involves cycles of erosion and accretion over tens of years. 

“The novel thing about our findings is that this doesn’t involve inputs of sand, large storms or sea level change, which are the main reasons cited for massive coastal changes,” explains Professor Cooper, “instead the system adjusts itself by reorganising the way sediment is stored at the coast.” 

“In an era when there is much concern about climate change and coastal erosion, this represents a mechanism for large scale coastal change without either climate change or sea level rise.”

Taking a longer-term perspective on global climate change and sea level, the article by Professor Marshall McCabe and Oregon State University colleagues, on the history of the last ice sheet in western Ireland, has unravelled the complex interactions between ice loading, global sea level fluctuation and depression of the land surface.   

“This demonstrates for the first time that the last ice sheet first developed in the west and then migrated eastward into the Irish sea basin,” said Professor McCabe.

“The model we present describes very rapid changes in ice sheet configuration and associated dramatic fluctuations in sea level.  There are clear lessons for predicting the course of contemporary climate change.” 

“These two articles illustrate the high quality and integrated nature of the work within the Environmental Sciences Research Institute into the record of global climate change and its broader implications,” added Institute Director, Dr Keith Day. 

   

For further information, please contact:

Trina Porter
Telephone: 028 71675511
Email: Trina Porter